Chapter 44
This Wei State soldier didn't know until the moment he died why his own comrade would strike him down.
After he died, his corpse also shakily stood up and walked toward another Wei State soldier, plunging a blade into his back.
Such incidents occurred one after another within this encampment; they had no idea who was the enemy and who was an ally!
The entire main camp of the Wei State instantly fell into a state of chaos. It could be said that they simply didn't have any hands to spare to reinforce the other camps.
Chapter 105: Persuading Surrender
Returning the focus to Lia's side, as the sounds of battle drew closer, Lia's soldiers had already completely taken control of the enemy's entire camp.
"Your Majesty, who are these people?" Seeing Lia confronting a dozen or so people, Li Lin approached from a distance. At this moment, he was drenched in blood, having killed an unknown number of enemies.
"They're just those enemy generals," Lia said with a light chuckle.
"I see." Upon hearing Lia's words, Li Lin suddenly understood. No wonder no enemy generals had come out to command; they were all trapped here by Her Majesty.
One person surrounding a dozen people—perhaps only Her Majesty could achieve such a feat?
"Since they are enemy generals, then...?" Li Lin looked at Lia with some confusion. If they were the enemy's commanders, why hadn't she made a move yet?
"I'm waiting for them to surrender. Perhaps they still think reinforcements are coming? Hehe," Lia laughed lightly.
"Your Majesty, why has there been no reaction from the other two enemy detachments until now?" Li Lin was also very puzzled.
Logically, even if they successfully raided the enemy's main camp, it was impossible for the other two camps to have no movement. Why had no enemy reinforcements been seen even now?
"Because they can't come." Lia naturally knew what was happening. The other two camps were being held down by Merlin and Morgan respectively, which was why she dared to have her army attack the main camp.
Otherwise, even if the raid succeeded, wouldn't they be flanked once the enemy's main force arrived?
For Lia, if she only wanted to win this battle, she could just kill the generals in front of her and then continue to slaughter the soldiers while they were leaderless to secure victory.
However, that wouldn't achieve the greatest possible results. Although they could defeat the enemy this time because of the surprise attack, the enemy soldiers weren't all lambs to the slaughter; they would resist. If that happened, her own soldiers would suffer casualties.
As soon as these enemy generals saw no hope, they would choose to surrender. Once they surrendered, the soldiers in the other two camps would also surrender upon receiving orders.
If she could defeat the enemy at the lowest possible cost, why wouldn't she do so?
The victory of this battle itself wasn't the key; the key lay in how to persuade the enemy's core figures to surrender or capture them. This was why Lia hadn't killed all the enemy's leading generals.
If she could win over this army, her combat power would expand instantly. Once she had another army of tens of thousands in her hands, whatever she did later would be much easier.
Seeing that reinforcements were long overdue while the enemy's numbers were increasing, these Wei State generals chose to surrender after weighing their options.
Because it was a night raid, Lia's side didn't lose many people—only about 1,000. However, of this enemy force of 40,000, the casualties were over 20,000.
A single battle had cost over 20,000 lives; Lia couldn't help but lament the cheapness of human life.
However, being able to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop tonight was also due to the fact that their combat power was too high. Otherwise, under normal circumstances, a surprise attack wouldn't have succeeded so easily.
Watching Lia persuade the enemy generals to surrender from the side, Li Lin couldn't help but sigh in admiration. Her Majesty truly is a goddess!
In his view, a strategy that seemed impossible to succeed actually worked... We all know that when people are in their deepest sleep at night, if they are startled awake, they briefly lose their ability to think and will be in a state of panic.
To achieve this goal, soldiers had to be sent to set fires in the camp and spread the sounds of battle cries.
This would make the enemy think there were a vast number of attackers. When the enemy is in a panic, they will subconsciously surge toward the exits.
Finally, all of our soldiers were equipped with warhorses, forming small units with high combat power and mobility, carrying out the raid under the cover of night.
Once the crowd grows and they realize the enemy has already arrived, these soldiers will create a bottleneck at the gates, constantly pushing toward the exit, which eventually leads to a stampede.
Finally, persuading those generals who have fallen into despair to surrender—due to the previous encounters, the enemy would inevitably perceive our side as unfathomable, making the persuasion highly likely to succeed.
That's right, this is exactly what Lia did. But such a thing shouldn't have been able to succeed, yet it did.
Clearly, the enemy still had two other detachments, each leading 30,000 soldiers. So what were those generals doing? Did they not notice the situation here at all?
Li Lin felt that was impossible. The most likely scenario was that Her Majesty had also sent soldiers to intercept the other two sides. But there were only so many soldiers in Chang'an; besides them, were there other hidden forces he didn't know about?
Thinking of this, Li Lin was startled, but then he stopped thinking about it. It was better for him to know less about such matters.
The next morning, Lia took Tuoba Ming to persuade those soldiers to surrender. Lia first arrived at the camp that Morgan had obstructed.
What she saw were corpses everywhere, but these corpses were all Wei State soldiers, and the survivors still looked terrified.
After all, this matter was truly bizarre. Why did their own allies all turn into enemies? And they couldn't be killed; they had fought these immortal monsters all night until dawn approached, when these immortal monsters finally truly died.
Although they fought immortal monsters, the number of soldiers who actually died wasn't that high. The number of corpses Morgan could control was limited; only a few thousand died that night.
But those few thousand deaths had shown these soldiers what true terror was.
When Lia personally escorted their Great General to the camp to persuade them to surrender, these soldiers surrendered very quickly.
However, the aftereffects of this incident were severe. Rumors that there was an evil sorcerer in the Wu Kingdom's army who controlled corpses to fight the living had already begun to spread quietly through the ranks.
If it weren't for Lia's sufficient prestige and the benevolent governance she usually practiced, these rumors would likely have spread even further. Lia also knew that this skill could not be used again.
Just as Lia planned to repeat the tactic to persuade the last enemy detachment to surrender, the news that arrived surprised her: that last enemy detachment had retreated.
This was somewhat unexpected for Lia. The enemy had actually retreated; it seemed they had already learned of the Northern Wei army's defeat here and simply fled.
Since the other party had run away, Lia had no way to give chase and could only deal with the Wei State soldiers who had already surrendered.
Chapter 106: Lia's Chicken Soup for the Soul
To be honest, despite how easily these generals were defeated by her, many of them were actually battle-hardened veterans. It could be said they were all personally trained by Emperor Taiwu and were famous generals of the era.
This was why Lia wanted to recruit them. She had too few generals who could truly operate independently; she couldn't be expected to lead troops to battle everywhere herself in the future, could she?
It was just that these generals were unlucky; the Britain trio they encountered were completely out of place for people of this era.
Logically, Lia and the others were mythological figures who should have stayed on Britain, the last island of myth, and gone nowhere.
But because of Lia, everyone had come out of Britain, which led to this situation.
In terms of results, it was simply that everyone was not even on the same track!
The opponents Lia and her group should have been facing were people from the era of the Investiture of the Gods, such as the 'Great Demon Fox' known as a Beast, Su Daji.
Of course, that's getting off-topic. In short, after this series of operations, this Northern Wei action was another major defeat.
However, although Lia had already captured these generals, how to make them truly loyal was still a major problem. One must realize that these generals could rebel at any time; bringing them into the city would be a huge risk.
Lia thought for a moment; it seemed she still needed to give them a bit of 'chicken soup for the soul.'
As Lia looked at the rows of captured soldiers and saw the worry for their future on their faces, she began to speak.
"I have been thinking about a question: why do we, as members of the land of Huaxia and as compatriots, have to fight each other?"
Lia's sudden words left the captives of the Wei State stunned. They didn't know what this Emperor of the Wu Kingdom, who was as beautiful as a goddess, wanted to say.
"What is the purpose of every battle that causes so many lives to be lost? Aren't we all compatriots? Why must we fight this meaningless war?"
"Truly, I do not want you, my compatriots, to be caught in war any longer because of this conflict. I do not want to see you falling in pools of blood ever again."
"I have a dream that one day, the Huaxia nation will rise again and truly live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"
"I have a dream that one day, whether it be the Han people or those ethnic groups originally from other regions, we can all sit down together on this land of Huaxia and share the bond of brotherhood."
"I have always had a dream... Therefore, I need you. I need your loyalty, soldiers! Come, let us strive together for our common ideal!"
Lia shouted these final words at the top of her lungs.
To Lia, who had already experienced the harsh realities of 21st-century society, this was very cliché and cringeworthy 'chicken soup.'
But for these uneducated soldiers, it was undoubtedly genuine inspiration for their souls!
When had these soldiers ever heard such stirring words? Their hearts surged with emotion, and finally, the first person knelt down.
Like a receding tide, everyone began to throw down their weapons, and the cry of "Long live Her Majesty the Empress!" echoed across the wilderness.
Faced with such words from Lia, how could these ordinary people not feel their blood boil with passion?
Lia's speech could be said to have completely won over this group of soldiers.
Even so, with the end of the battle, many problems remained, such as the issue of the fallen soldiers. There was also the exhaustion after a great battle; everyone desperately needed rest.
Next would be the plans for the subsequent offensive and so on, all of which required the ministers to organize.
However, while the news of the Wei State's crushing defeat was spreading, Lia could take the opportunity to first conquer the remaining counties in Shaanxi Province that were not yet under her control.
Thinking of this, Lia immediately ordered Li Lin to lead the soldiers to take the remaining counties in Shaanxi Province that were not under her rule. At the same time, she dispatched another general to Ningxia to take that region as well.
In this way, she would possess the four provinces of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Ningxia. In terms of overt strength, she was already closing in on the Northern Wei.
The territory of the Northern Wei had shrunk significantly. Now, they not only had to guard against the Song State in the south but also the rising Wu Kingdom in the west, and finally, they had to resist the Nomadic Confederation in the north. It seemed they were already besieged on all sides.
Not only that, the army led by Leopard did not flee directly back to Luoyang. Instead, they went to Jin Province—which is Shanxi Province—and directly seized Jin Province to declare himself king.
Lia was also somewhat surprised to hear this news. This Leopard was a Great General of the Northern Wei during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. She hadn't expected him to rebel outright; it seemed he had been hit hard by her.
But truth be told, this was indeed Lia's fault.
According to the normal timeline of history, a man like Leopard would not have rebelled against the Northern Wei. After all, his military career had been relatively successful. However, since he began his campaign against Lia, he had suffered continuous failures.
Last time, he led fifty thousand troops to attack Lia and was soundly defeated. He also lost Guannei and was nearly executed by Emperor Taiwu. This time was supposed to be his chance to redeem himself, but for some reason, they were completely unaware of what was happening with the main commander.
By the time they realized it, the main force had already been crushed.
And what about them? Although their troops were undamaged, they would still be charged with a capital crime that would lead to the execution of their entire families.
After all, they had remained idle while watching the main army camp be destroyed. What did that look like?
If he were to return to Luoyang with his army now, what would the result be? The charges awaiting him were obvious.
Driven into a corner, Leopard began to reflect on the reasons for his current failure.
Their Northern Wei was clearly so powerful, with strong soldiers and sturdy horses, so why couldn't they suppress a single Rebel Leader? Later, he understood.
It was because Common People were all on her side. The reason Common People favored the Rebel Leader was because she killed corrupt officials, distributed grain, and divided the land.
She didn't force those common people to rebel with her, nor did she rob them of anything. Instead, she protected them everywhere. In contrast, look at what their Wei State had done over the years.
If they weren't press-ganging men into the army, they were seizing Common People's grain. With such a comparison, the result was clear: their Wei State had long since lost the hearts of the people, otherwise there wouldn't be rebellions everywhere.
Thinking of this, Leopard took a deep breath. It wasn't that he didn't want to continue supporting the Great Wei, but there were so many flaws that it was simply beyond saving!
If the Wu Kingdom hadn't risen, these flaws could have been solved slowly. But since they had already risen, these flaws of the Wei State became the final straw that broke the camel's back.
In any case, if he went back this time, Emperor Taiwu would surely settle both new and old scores with him. Since rebelling meant death and going back also meant death, he might as well just rebel!
Chapter 107: I Have Also Rebelled
Thinking of this, Leopard looked at his subordinates and said, "Everyone, we watched our Wei State's main army fall without going to support them. Returning will surely mean a death sentence. If you don't want to die, then follow this general and rebel!"
One of the generals under Leopard looked up at him and said, "Sir, we brothers all follow you. You've treated us well in the past. If you want to lead us in rebellion, we brothers certainly won't have a second thought!"
After saying this, the general turned his gaze to the other officers and soldiers and shouted, "Lord Leopard has treated us well, while those Wei State soldiers don't even treat us like human beings! Now Lord Leopard is going to lead us to rebel against Wei, we will surely follow him! Am I right?!"
Under the urging of these officers, the soldiers quickly responded one after another.
After thinking for a moment, Leopard said,
"Since that Rebel Leader can occupy the Hexi Corridor and Guanzhong, then we shall take Jin Province. As long as you brothers follow me, I will absolutely not mistreat you! After capturing Jin Province, I will appoint myself as king, and you brothers shall each receive titles and rewards!"
In Leopard's view, as long as he took Bingzhou now, the Wei State would basically be severely crippled. By then, even if Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei wanted to campaign against him, he wouldn't have the capability.
Hearing the words 'titles and rewards,' the soldiers present became excited.
Most of the soldiers here had been recruited by the Wei State from various regions across the country. Although Leopard had a history of embezzling official silver, he was extremely generous to his subordinates. He was never stingy when it came time to give rewards, which was why most people were willing to follow him.
Now that Leopard had personally promised that everyone would be rewarded, then once he took Jin Province, there would definitely be rewards.
One must realize that declaring oneself king certainly requires power. To have power, one needs an army. To have an army, one must expand and recruit. Wouldn't it be natural for people like them to be promoted?
Thinking of this, the various generals couldn't help but start clamoring.
"To hell with it, let's rebel!"
"I've been sick of this Wei State for a long time."
"If General Leopard becomes Emperor in the future, we will be the founding heroes!"
In short, all sorts of treasonous words came out from the mouths of these generals.